Small Business Center (SBC)

Our Small Business Center is here to help you during this time! We offer free consulting services and can help you put together a plan for now and for the future. Please contact us today by phone or email.

It can be overwhelming trying to figure out where to begin and what tools and knowledge you will need to start your own business. Pitt Community College’s Small Business Center (SBC) can help! The SBC specializes in assisting startups, early-stage, and troubled businesses. We can help guide you through the process and steps that will help make your business a success.

The SBC is committed to helping prospective and existing small business owners in our community succeed, leading to job creation and retention in Pitt County. We proudly contribute to the continuing education efforts of over 30,000 Pitt County residents each year.

At the state level, we are part of the North Carolina Small Business Center Network, which maintains a Small Business Center at each of the 58 NC Community Colleges.

View our latest Community College Update featuring Small Business Center Director, Jim Ensor, to learn more about what we offer.

Free Seminars

The Small Business Center offers more than 125 free seminars each year on various business topics, including Financing, Management, Marketing, and Accounting/Record Keeping.

Free Confidential Consulting

The SBC provides free, confidential one-on-one consulting services to assist you in the daily operation of your business. Shareen Berkowitz, an experienced business counselor at the SBC, can help you with business plans, marketing plans, loan packages, market and industry research, strategic planning, and financials. If you would like to schedule a meeting to discuss your existing business or start-up needs, please use this link.

Meet our Counselor

Shareen Berkowitz helps create jobs in our local community by assisting individuals in starting their own businesses. She provides resources and coaching as a Business Counselor for the Small Business Center at PCC. As a business owner herself, she is a self-proclaimed “professional networker,” which compliments and enhances her expertise in the areas of growing a business through connections, social media marketing, and event planning with a particular focus on building strong relationships. Shareen also spent several years working in the corporate world, most recently with State Street Corporation in Boston, prior to moving to North Carolina in 2003. She is a graduate of New England College of Finance.

Free Resource Center

The Small Business Center maintains a Business Resource Center that is open to the public. It is designed for your use as you prepare your business/marketing plan, conduct market/industry research, and learn new tools to help you run your business more efficiently. This center is open during normal business hours and contains Computers with Internet Access, Examples of Business Plans, Business Reference Materials, How-to Books, and Videos/DVDs.

Download a Small Business Center flyer.